As Catholics around the world prepare to mark the 100th World Mission Sunday on 18 October, Bishop Greg Bennet is inviting parishes across the Diocese of Sale to unite with Pope Leo XIV and the universal Church in prayer, solidarity and support for communities in need.
For a century, one Sunday in October has invited Catholics to look beyond the boundaries of their own parish, diocese and country and remember something fundamental: we belong to a Church without borders.
This year, that invitation carries particular significance.
On Sunday 18 October, Catholics around the world will mark the 100th World Mission Sunday, a celebration established by Pope Pius XI in 1926.
For the centenary, Pope Leo XIV has chosen the theme “One in Christ, United in Mission”, calling the Church to continue its missionary journey with what he describes as “joy and zeal in the Holy Spirit”.
Here in Gippsland, Bishop Greg has invited every parish to “once again unite with the Holy Father in the Church’s universal mission.”
It is an invitation that reaches beyond supporting a project overseas.
It asks Catholics to rediscover what it means to be missionary here at home, and what it means to belong to a Church whose bonds of faith extend far beyond geography.
World Mission Sunday has a distinctive place in the life of the Catholic Church.
In his message for this year's centenary, Pope Leo recalls that the celebration was established in 1926 following a proposal from the Society of the Propagation of the Faith, one of the Pontifical Mission Societies.
A century later, the offerings made on World Mission Sunday continue to be distributed through the Society, on behalf of the Pope, to support the missionary needs of local Churches around the world.
Here in Australia, that mission is carried forward through Catholic Mission, the Pope’s international mission agency in Australia, working with local bishops, priests, religious and lay leaders to strengthen communities through education, healthcare, pastoral care and the formation of future Church leaders.
But Pope Leo's message makes clear that mission cannot be reduced to money.
“No baptized person is exempt from or indifferent to mission,” he writes.
Each Christian, according to their vocation and circumstances, has a part to play.
This year, the World Mission Appeal in the Diocese of Sale will help Catholics stand alongside the local Church and families in Kampira Village, Malawi.
In 2022, Cyclone Ana caused the Shire River to burst its banks in southern Malawi, washing away villages and forcing families from their homes.
Today, more than 500 families live in Kampira on the plains of the Diocese of Chikwawa. Many are rebuilding their lives after the disaster, but for their children, rebuilding a future also means gaining access to education.
For children in remote communities, simply getting to school can mean travelling several kilometres each day. Among them is Yamikani*, a young boy living with a physical disability who travels several kilometres to reach his current school.
His ambition is striking in its simplicity: he hopes one day to become a driver, earn an income and support himself. The local Church is working to bring that possibility closer.
Together with the community, Fr Matthew Semba, Director of Social Services for the Diocese of Chikwawa, is overseeing the construction of St Peter's Nyamikuta Primary School in Kampira.
The new school will bring education closer to local children. Plans also include nutritious meals, educational supplies and shade trees to help protect the community from extreme weather.
“This project encourages them to seek something bigger, to look forward to something greater,” Fr Matthew says.
It is a school being built in Malawi.
But the story behind it reaches much further.
Catholic Mission's approach is not to arrive in communities such as Kampira with an Australian solution.
It is to walk alongside the local Church, supporting people such as Fr Matthew and communities who understand their own circumstances, needs and hopes.
That same relationship works in the other direction.
World Mission Sunday asks Catholics in Gippsland not simply to see people thousands of kilometres away as recipients of assistance, but as brothers and sisters belonging to the same Church.
A child in Kampira and a family gathering for Mass in Narre Warren, Clyde, Berwick, Warragul, Traralgon, Sale, Cranbourne, Pakenham, Wonthaggi or another community across the Diocese may never meet.
They may speak different languages and live very different lives.
But neither is a stranger to the other.
They are part of the same Body of Christ.
That is what gives Pope Leo's theme, “One in Christ, United in Mission”, particular force in this centenary year. The Pope writes that Christian unity is not an end in itself; it sends the Church outward in mission. He describes that mission as one “born of love, lived in love, and leading to love.”
As World Mission Sunday approaches, Bishop Greg is encouraging Catholic communities across the Diocese of Sale to take their place in that century-long story.
Parishes across the Archdiocese will mark World Mission Month through prayer, reflection and participation in the World Mission Appeal, joining Catholics around Australia and throughout the world.
In his message to parishes, Bishop Greg expresses the hope that World Mission Month will help Catholics “deepen our communion with the universal Church and to walk ever more closely with our brothers and sisters throughout the world.”
That communion is at the heart of Pope Leo’s centenary message.
For the Holy Father, even the smallest act matters.
“Every gift, no matter how small,” he writes, becomes a meaningful act of missionary communion.
Perhaps that is ultimately what World Mission Sunday has been reminding the Church for 100 years.
Mission is not the work of someone else, somewhere else. It is the calling of the whole Church.
Different countries. Different cultures. Different gifts. One in Christ, United in Mission.
And from Gippsland to Malawi, we belong to one another.
*Name changed to protect the child's identity.
Bulletin notices, speaking notes, and appeal resources are available via the Catholic Mission Parish Resource Hub.
